A vindication of the opinions delivered in evidence by the medical witnesses for the Crown on a late trial at Lancaster for murder / by J. Gerard [and others].

Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A vindication of the opinions delivered in evidence by the medical witnesses for the Crown on a late trial at Lancaster for murder / by J. Gerard [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    rough; and the openings of the vessels, in that part, were still discernible, whilst all the rest of the Uterus was smooth. The Ovaria were then, for the first time, divided ; and a corpus luteum was distinctly perceived in one of the Ovaria.^ We now proceed to the stomach. Whether the actual perforation of the stomach existed before death or not, it is not perhaps easy to ascertain. We were, however, satisfied that there must have been such a complete destruction of its texture and organization in a considerable part of it, as to be incompatible with the conti- nuance of life; and that this injury took place before death, and was the immediate cause of death. That we were justified in this conclusion, we apprehend the following fact will sufficiently prove. Upon making an incision through the integuments of the Abdomen, a part of the con- tents of the stomach was found amongst the in- testines. When the stomach was raised from its situation, and examined before its removal from the body, it was found, that for greatly more than the extent of a hands breadth in the anterior and inferior part of the large curvature, the texture of its coats was to- tally destroyed. The opening was nearly in the cen- ter of this injured part. The coats of the stomach in this part were thin, soft, and semitransparent; and the finger burst through them on the slightest t We did not examine the Ovaria, at the time that the Uterus was taken out of the hody, because we were perfectly satisfied in our minds w ith the other proofs which we found of pregnancy : and we could not have supposed it possible that the fact of pregnancy in this case could ever have been called in question. It has also been remarked that we did not examine the breasts in this case ; the truth is, the other proofs of pregnancy were so evident that bo proof drawn from this source could in the least strengthen them.
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